The present invention relates generally to the field of facsimile telecommunications, and more specifically, to the field of facsimile store and forward facilities.
The transfer of information using facsimile technology has become a very widespread and important mode of communication. A very large number of facsimile machines are currently in use as essential components of many businesses. Unfortunately, while facsimile technology has existed for many years now, the conventional method of facsimile communication has several rather serious drawbacks. While conventional facsimile communication can often be faster, less expensive, and more convenient than other forms of information transfer, such as the postal service or courier document delivery services, facsimile communication is currently plagued by many new and old problems which may delay or prevent the transfer of information.
Many problems related to conventional facsimile communication are well known. It is very common for destination numbers to be busy or unavailable due to heavy usage, time zone incompatibilities, etc., often forcing the sender of facsimile information to inconveniently attempt to complete the call later. Thus, destination availability is an area of risk for conventional facsimile communication. Another area of risk surrounds the phase of actually electronically transferring information to the correct destination facsimile machine to generate a hard copy. For instance, it is not uncommon for senders of facsimile information to make mistakes in dialing destination facsimile telephone numbers, for switching equipment in public and private networks to fail or misdirect a call, or even for facsimile information to be overwritten in facsimile machines with limited amounts of storage memory. Thus, in addition to destination availability, the electronic transfer phase is another area of risk for conventional facsimile communication.
Other problems of conventional facsimile communication relate to the physical phase of transferring a facsimile hard copy output from a destination facsimile machine to the intended recipient. This area of risk for conventional facsimile communication arises from the inherent separation between people and facsimile machines. Put simply, while most facsimile machines are stationary, people are not. For a variety of reasons, including the current state of facsimile technology, most people do not continuously carry portable facsimile machines wherever they go. Consequently, the actual transfer of facsimile information between people, rather than simply between facsimile machines, is still at risk to a variety of circumstances delaying, or even preventing, the transfer. Unless the intended recipient happens to be standing at the receiving facsimile machine when a hard copy is generated, the next best scenario is that the hard copy is immediately noticed by someone else who personally takes the hard copy to the intended recipient. Unfortunately, it is much more common that (i) the hard copy is ignored for a long period of time in a facsimile tray, in an employee mail slot, on an intermediate employee's desk, or in a variety of other places, (ii) the hard copy is mistakenly directed to, or obtained by, an employee other than the intended recipient, or (iii) the hard copy is mistakenly thrown away. These are only a few of the reasons the physical phase of transferring a facsimile hard copy to an intended recipient is an area of risk for conventional facsimile communication.
Despite the many problems related to facsimile communication, senders often incorrectly assume that successful facsimile communication has taken place. Senders often mistakenly rely on so-called "confirmation" printouts from the sending facsimile machines even though such indications do not confirm communication with the intended recipient person but merely suggest that information has been transferred to some machine somewhere. Moreover, many of the previously-identified problems are intensified and create additional frustration when information to be communicated is especially important, urgent, or confidential.
Others in the past have offered systems and methods for addressing these and the above concerns, all of which have thus far failed to obtain widespread adoption by the majority of facsimile users. One proposed solution involves facsimile store and forward facilities (F-SAFF's) which provide various facsimile mailbox services to authorized subscribing users or owners of such systems. In addition to often being unavailable to members of the general public without prior, known established relationships with senders or intended recipients, most previous systems fail to provide senders with significant control, confirmation, or monitoring options. A sender is unable to discourage undesirable viewing of confidential information by those other than the intended recipient or confirm or monitor communication of urgent or important information with the actual intended recipient. Consequently, it is very common for senders and intended recipients to engage in very unproductive and time consuming processes of personally attempting to verify successful facsimile communication.
There is, therefore, a need in the industry for a system which addresses these and other related, and unrelated, problems.